Nicole Forrester is not one to blend into a crowd. Actually, standing at a height of 6-foot-2 1/2, the star high jumper for the Michigan women's track team doesn't exactly have much of a choice.
Sure, 6-2 1/2 might not be unique for the women's basketball team, but in a sport like track, Forrester towers above her teammates. Her slim physique and especially long legs help to add to her stature and also helped to inspire the nickname her fellow Wolverines and Michigan coach James Henry have playfully given her - "Sticks."
"I got that nickname when I came here last year," Forrester said with a laugh. "I was so skinny - not that I'm not right now, but I was incredibly skinny, so James used to call me 'Sticks.' Now I'm 'Pole,' because I'm not as skinny as last year. He called me 'Sticks,' but the name just stuck around and now everyone calls me that."
Forrester said she doesn't mind the attention she gets because of her height - as long as it's positive.
"It's all in good fun," Forrester said. "If someone was negative about it, that would be different. But it's all good-natured, so it doesn't matter."
Although her stature may prompt a little teasing from her friends, it hasn't hampered her ability to perform in the high jump.
Forrester went undefeated in indoor regular-season competition and placed second in the Big Ten championship. She finished a disappointing 12th at the NCAA championship in Indianapolis this weekend, with a height of 5-8 1/2. Only a sophomore, however, Forrester has demonstrated that she has the potential to win a national championship later in her career.
To many observers, her height would seem to be an advantage in the high jump. After all, how hard could it be for someone taller than six feet to jump a height of 6-3 1/4, the winning height at nationals?
This kind of common logic is far from the truth, according to Forrester, and a quick scan of an average field of her competitors proves her right. She is usually a head taller than most other women high jumpers.
"That's a stereotype," Forrester said. "Actually, it has nothing to do (with how tall I am), because everyone has a different style of jumping. I'm a power jumper, so a lot of my ability comes from the spring in my leg. I don't really have a high vertical. I don't really know what it is - just a knack that I have, an ability to get off the ground.
"Actually, a lot of competitors that I'll go against are really short. Last year, me and (teammate) Monika Black were two totally different ends of the height spectrum, and yet we jumped around the same height."
Forrester even goes as far as to say that her height can put her at a disadvantage to her shorter opponents.
"Sometimes, because I'm so tall, it might actually hinder me because there's so much leg," she said. "I'm working on my arch, because there's so much weight in my legs that it causes me to hit the bar."
It's not surprising that Forrester still has trouble with her jumping technique. As high jumpers go, she is somewhat of a prodigy, without much actual experience on her resume. The story of her discovery, three years ago, of her talent in the high jump is like something out of a Disney movie.
"I used to high jump, but I sucked at it horribly," Forrester said. "I did a lot of other sports, too, and I just did track on the side. One time, I was working in McDonald's, and this guy who probably saw me high jump at a meet before came over and he was like, 'Do you high jump by any chance?' And I was like, 'Yeah, but I suck,' and he was like, 'Well, just give this guy a call and talk to him.'
"That's how I ran into my old coach and started being trained by him. Back in Canada, people aren't really hired to coach for schools, they're hired for education and then they volunteer. But my coach turned out to be really good and he helped me out. That's when I really started jumping."
Forrester started her freshman year of college at the University of Ottawa, but knew she would eventually transfer - Canadian universities don't award scholarships based on athletics.
She transferred to Michigan for the winter semester of her first year, but adjusting in the middle of the school year was tough for her.
"This was the hardest transfer of my entire life," Forrester said. "I came in January last year, and I didn't know anyone.
"Usually, when everyone comes in as a freshman, no one knows anyone, and you spend that first month getting to know everyone. But by the time January comes around, everyone's got all their friends, so that was hard."
Despite her initial problems, Forrester has adapted well to her new school and team. Staying in Ann Arbor to take classes and compete over the summer helped her feel more comfortable at Michigan.
"I like it here - I made a really excellent choice," Forrester said. "Spring term allowed me to meet a lot of other people, so I'm having a ball right now. We're a really close team this year. We hang out all the time, do a lot of bonding. I'm enjoying this season a lot."
Although she may be at ease with her environment, Forrester still seems to have trouble with the pressures of competition.
While dealing with high expectations established by an impressive freshman campaign, Forrester failed to even qualify for the finals at the 1996 outdoor Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.
"I don't want to look back on last year," Forrester said. "Last year was horrible. I choked. I could write a book about choking. I was shaking and really nervous, and I started doubting myself."
The experience of giving into pressure has helped her to mature, however. Although not in top form, she did much better at the Big Tens and NCAAs this year, and Forrester feels that she will only get better - as long as she works on her form.
"Now I'm taking little steps to take giant steps," Forrester said. "Last year, I went in with all these expectations that probably could have been fulfilled, but I put too much pressure on myself. I expect to win now. I know I'm going to win, so I just have fun with it.
"But there's so much to improve, it's not funny. I started picking up bad habits this year - I lean going into my take-off, for example. There are big problems. When I reach my maximum, then I'll stop."
Forrester, however, hasn't gotten entirely over her performance anxiety problems - she still brings a teddy bear to all of Michigan's meets, for good luck, of course.
"I just bring it. I don't know," Forrester laughed. "Just for warmth ... just to take it with me. I need it for traveling, because when I have a hotel room I sleep with my teddy bear, so that one comes with me wherever I go. I don't know how much I believe in luck anymore. I just do it from force of habit.
"I do bring jumping beans to hold sometimes when I'm ready to compete."
Henry has been impressed by the progress Forrester has made since she came to Michigan. Henry says she has the chance to be one of the nation's top high jumpers, despite some of the problems she's had in the past.
"She came to us in January, so we didn't get a chance to do any type of training, so we threw her right in the pond," Henry said. "It was like the analogy about throwing the frog in the pot and it's boiling hot. That frog will just jump out of that darn thing. Nicole did that on many occasions - especially when the water was real hot in the Big Tens and nationals. So she stayed up all summer, and we boiled the water slowly, and now she's swimming in the boiling water, and she can handle it.
"She doesn't know how strong she can be, and how good she can possibly be. She's capable of being one of the best high jumpers ever for women at the college level."
Considering the progress she's made already, as long as she keeps her chin up and mentality clear of stress, Forrester should have nothing but clear skies ahead of her - literally and figuratively.